Question

How does Harte’s writing demonstrate regionalism? Look for both physical environment descriptions and examples of distinct western speech.

Answer 1

Answer:

Harte's writing style clearly demonstrates the western American style by the usage of sentence structure, vocabulary and the scenic settings. A few examples of such characteristics of western speech from "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" are as given in the explanation.

Explanation:

Speech patterns and words that are unique to that region of the country

• "I reckon they're after somebody,"

• he reflected; "likely it's me."

• "Tommy you're a good little man"
• "He looked over the valley and summed up the present and future in two words, 'Snowed in'"
• "It's agin justice," said Jim Wheeler, "to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp--an entire stranger--carry away our money."

Physical environment descriptions

• "He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which he had been whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture."

• "A wooded amphitheater, surrounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, sloped gently toward the crest of another precipice that overlooked the valley. "

• "He looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the circling pines around him; at the sky, ominously clouded; at the valley below, already deepening into shadow."

• "The Innocent with the aid of pine boughs extemporized a thatch for the roofless cabin"

• "But it revealed drift on drift of snow piled high around the hut--a hopeless, uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which the castaways still clung. Through the marvelously clear air the smoke of the pastoral village of Poker Flat rose miles away. "